Independencia en El Salvador y otras gestas emancipadoras El Comité Académico Organizador consiste de los siguien- en Centroamérica. Este congreso tiene como objetivo dar tes institutciones: Secretaría de Cultura de la Presidencia-SEC continuidad a las presentaciones llevadas a cabo en los Universidad Tecnológica de El Salvador-Utec Universidad de encuentros previos. Se trata de colocar en la palestra el El Salvador-UES Fundación Nacional de Arqueología-Fundar producto de las diversas investigaciones arqueológicas Asociación Salvadoreña de Antropología-Asoan. Sede del IV realizadas en la región. Al redimensionar que la Arqueología Congreso Centroamericano de Arqueología será el Museo es una ciencia social, se busca reafirmar el vínculo entre lo Nacional de Antropología. “Dr. David J. Guzmán”. Dirección: material y la construcción de las identidades locales, nacionales Avenida La Revolución, Colonia San Benito, (Frente al Centro y regionales. El IV Congreso Centroamericano de Arqueología Internacional de Ferias y Convenciones CIFCO), San Salva- motiva la participación de profesionales nacionales y extranjer- dor. Para mayor Información: www.cultura.gob.sv; Teléfonos os, en el esfuerzo de fomentar y difundir la producción científica y Fax: (503) 2 243-3750, -3827, -3927 y -3928; Correo electrónico: en la disciplina arqueológica. [email protected]

Contributions

The Ballcourt at El Palmillo: Implications for Late Classic , Gary M. Feinman and Linda M. Nicholas

In this paper we document, describe, and define the history of would have been the center of the court was defined on the a small, previously unreported ballcourt at the site of El Palmillo west by a low linear mound and on the east by a much higher in the eastern arm of the Valley of Oaxaca. Of the more than 45 and larger platform built on what appeared to be a natural rise. known ballcourts in the Valley of Oaxaca, few have been There were no end mounds, and through the dense thorny excavated (Fig. 1). The ballcourt at El Palmillo was discovered vegetation the flat space between the two side mounds ap- during broad horizontal excavations in a high-status precinct peared to be narrower than the equivalent space for the main at the apex of the site. When placed in the context of the ballcourt at Monte Albán. We discussed the evidence and ballgame’s association with boundaries, factions, political ultimately decided it was too equivocal to define this area as competition, and the acquisition of power (Fox 1996; Gillespie a ballcourt. Given the significance of ballcourts and their 1991; Kowalewski et al. 1991; Montmollin 1997; Santley et al. presence in only a small percentage of sites in the valley, we 1991), the placement of the ballcourt at El Palmillo and its preferred to be conservative in our assessment. We called it history of use allows us to reflect on the declining fortunes of a small plaza instead. Monte Albán and the political fragmentation of the Valley of In 1999 we began excavations in several residential terraces Oaxaca during the last centuries of the Classic period. near the base of the hill (Feinman et al. 2002). Because our main goal was to explore households and their associated economic History of work at El Palmillo activities, access to goods, and variation in residential and El Palmillo is a large, hilltop terraced site located near the mortuary architecture, we eventually excavated a series of modern community of Santiago Matatlán in the dry eastern, or residential spaces dispersed across the main western face of Tlacolula, arm of the Valley of Oaxaca (see Fig. 1). The site was the hill, working our way up to the highest residential precinct first recorded during the regional survey of the Valley of at the site, where we spent six field seasons (2003–2008) Oaxaca in 1980 (Kowalewski et al. 1989). In spite of dense, spiny excavating three elite residences (see Fig. 2). vegetation that limited access in many parts of the site, the We began excavations in this high-status precinct on survey crew mapped hundreds of residential terraces on the Terrace 335 and then moved to the adjacent residence on slopes of the steep rocky hill and identified a series of public Structure 35 (Fig. 3). These elite residences were larger and buildings and plazas on the site’s highest ridge. El Palmillo much more elaborate than the lower-status houses on the clearly was the largest Classic period site in the eastern part of slopes below. These elaborate residences, or palaces, also the Tlacolula arm of the valley. contained features not found in lower-status contexts, such as We returned to El Palmillo in 1997 to complete a more subfloor masonry tombs, sweatbaths, multiple patios, and L- intensive mapping and surface study of the site. This was the shaped corner rooms (Feinman and Nicholas 2007; Feinman et first stage of what we intended to be a long-term project of al. 2008; Haller et al. 2006). Structure 35 also was adjacent to the household excavations at the site. With a crew that included feature that we had earlier thought might be a ballcourt, so in several local workmen wielding machetes to clear some of the 2007, before we began excavations in the third elite residence vegetation, we were able to see and record twice as many (the large Platform 11 on the east side of the possible ballcourt), terraces as the regional survey crew, over 1400 terraces, most we tested the area between these two raised areas (Feinman of which were densely arranged on the top and western face and Nicholas 2009). of the hill (Fig. 2; Feinman and Nicholas 2004). Not far from the After clearing the brush we exposed the top of a cut-stone principal mound group at the apex of the hill was a feature that wall that was constructed less than a meter to the east of 98 we suspected might be a ballcourt. A small, flattened area that Structure 35. This wall forms the western base of the low rocky

mexicon Vol. XXXIII August 2011 mound that we called Structure 33 in 1997. We followed out the top of this wall and discov- ered that it ran for more than 30 m before turning and continuing to the east on both its northern and southern ends. We next placed several 2 m by 2 m units in the flat space immediately east of this north- south wall, and below a thick layer of dis- turbed fill we came down on a poorly pre- served plaster floor. We followed this plaster floor into a few adjacent units and ascertained that the plaster surface was not the floor of a room but rather the corner of an I-shaped ballcourt. Once we were reasonably certain that Structure 33 was part of a small ballcourt, we adjusted our field methodology accordingly. We set out to determine the dimensions, size, and shape of the court and to learn about its dating and history of use. We chose not to completely expose the western mound nor the entire plaster floor of the court. In general, the floor of the court was not well preserved and the fill level above the floor was thick and largely composed of dark brown colluvial fill. To define the ballcourt we followed its exterior walls and exposed the corners to ensure accurate measurement and mapping of the court dimensions. Once we had those dimensions, we projected the exact center of the court, where we located the stone marker. We also excavated one 2 m by 2 m unit in the north edge of the west mound to check its construction and to determine what this mound might overlay. We also defined sev- Fig. 1. Map of Oaxaca, showing the location of known ballcourts. Named sites have eral access routes to and from the court from ballcourts that have been excavated. adjacent structures. In addition to document- ing the ballcourt, these field strategies were geared to provide information on the court’s relationship to adjacent features in this upper sector of El Palmillo. Those data, in turn, provide the opportunity to compare the El Palmillo ballcourt to others in the Valley of Oaxaca. The El Palmillo ballcourt Once we defined the ballcourt at El Palmillo (see Fig. 3), we considered the factors, in addition to the obscuring vegetation, that had kept us from identifying this space as a ballcourt in 1997 (Feinman and Nicholas 2004). During the excavations, we discovered that the surface configuration of this space was altered after its use as a ballcourt and prior to site abandonment. Stones were piled on the west mound of the ballcourt, after its use as a court, turning this mound into a prehispanic wall (likely for defense) at the end of El Palmillo’s occupation. The slightly raised south room of Terrace 335 also was turned Fig. 2. Map of El Palmillo, showing the location of excavated contexts. into a wall late in the site’s occupation and 99

mexicon Vol. XXXIII August 2011 walls of the court were made with cut stones; in the north- east corner, the stones were placed right on top of bedrock (Fig. 4). The marker stone in the center of the court was a round, thick slab of cut and faced slate, 75 x 70 cm, which was embedded in the court’s plas- ter floor. The white plaster around the marker was painted red (Fig. 5). In the southeast corner were stairs made of cut stone that led to a plaza on the south end of Platform 11 (Fig. 6). There was another set of stairs on the side of Platform 11 so the residents of the palace could directly enter the ball- court. Our excavation in the north edge of the west mound of the ballcourt revealed that the mound was constructed of perpendicular rows of adobe bricks filled with large unfaced boulders and was built above what likely was previously residential space. In the exca- vated unit, a plaster floor and a small segment of an associ- ated adobe wall were exposed (Fig. 7). Based on the eleva- Fig. 3. The penultimate (Surface 2) plan of residential architecture in the upper precinct at El Palmillo. tions of this floor and wall and after the room was no longer used as part of the residence. At their orientation and location, these residential features ap- the same time, the flat area between the court’s mounds was pear to have been associated with Surface 3 on Structure 35 to intentionally filled with sediment, partially obscuring the court. the west (c. early/middle IIIb-IV, Middle to Late Classic). It is The ballcourt at El Palmillo is a small I-shaped ballcourt, possible that this space was part of a second small patio-room measuring 35 m by 17 m (see Fig. 3). The west side was formed group that was part of the Structure 35 residence (Fig. 8). At by a high stone wall that separated it from Structure 35. The the end of Surface 3 a new small patio-room group was built floor of the court was plastered, as were the banquettes. The north of the larger Structure 35 patio-room complex (see Fig. banquettes were constructed largely of adobe. The interior 3). This newly built small patio was constructed above what had been the south room of the small patio of the Terrace 335 residence, decreasing the size of and space available to that

Fig. 4. The northeast corner of the ballcourt at El Palmillo, showing Fig. 5. The central marker stone in the ballcourt at El Palmillo, with the plaster floor and walls constructed on top of undulating traces of red paint on the surrounding plaster surface. 100 bedrock.

mexicon Vol. XXXIII August 2011 latter residence in Surface 2. We suspect that these changes corner of the court, depicts an individual (man) seated in a were made so that the ballcourt could be built at the end of manner similar to Classic-period Zapotec funerary urns. The Surface 3 (start of Surface 2) east of the main patio complex of stone sculpture is about the size of a medium-sized urn. The the Structure 35 residence. This court essentially was squeezed depicted figure has long straight hair, represented in a manner between two existing residences (Structure 35 and Platform similar to that found on many Zapotec ceramic urns. The 11), hence its narrow width. A carbon date of cal. A.D. 656–777 individual also wears a loincloth, a cloth shirt with a patterned was obtained from ashy deposits sitting on the exposed trim, and a beaded necklace. Unfortunately, the head of this plaster floor under the western mound of the ballcourt. The sculpture was broken off (defacing the sculpture) a long time dating of this episode of burning just prior to the construction ago, prior to its placement in the fill of the court. Given its of the ballcourt supports the ceramic evidence from these recovery in colluvial fill, we cannot be sure if this sculpture was occupational episodes. originally associated with the court. Yet there is a good chance The ballcourt was defined on the east by Platform 11, which that it may have been (possibly the ruler of the adjacent predates the ballcourt (see Fig. 7). The Platform 11 palace was palace), in a manner similar to the carved stone with jaguar built above a masonry tomb that was initially constructed imagery associated with the ballcourt on the Main Plaza at during Surface 4 (late IIIa/early IIIb-IV, or Middle Classic). This Monte Albán (Caso 1935:13). The sculpture may have origi- residential space appears to have constrained and so later nally been placed in a small niche that we exposed in the wall formed the east side of the ballcourt. Prior to the construction of the northeast corner of the court. of the ballcourt, this residence (in Surface 3) had the largest and most elaborate patio in the upper precinct (see Fig. 8). Plastered Ballcourts in the Valley of Oaxaca stairs led up from the deeply sunken patio to rooms on three The El Palmillo ballcourt is just one of 49 known ballcourts in sides of the patio; there were large niches in all four corners, the study region, but because of its dating and context, it one of which had a small plastered feature that might have been provides new perspectives on ballcourt variation and change. a ”throne”; and there was a small adoratorio in the patio that To understand the significance of the ballcourt at El Palmillo, faced the entrance of the subterranean tomb. Coincident with we consider briefly the wider corpus of courts in the region. the construction of the ballcourt at the beginning of Surface Oaxacan ballcourts were built from late in the Formative 2, the Platform 11 residence was enlarged to comprise a third period until the Postclassic. Many are located at large, patio-room group (see Fig. 3). multicomponent sites. Only a few have been excavated (Bernal Based on this architectural information, the carbon date, and Gamio 1974; Caso 1935; Feinman and Nicholas 2009; and the associated ceramics, the ballcourt was built later in Flannery and Marcus 1983; Oliveros 1997), so for most of them Monte Alban IIIb-IV and was not utilized for an extensive we do not know with certainty when they were initially con- period. In a few places, we were able to determine that the floor structed or how their form might have changed over time. But of the court was plastered twice, but few other renovations or we know from surface studies that they varied in size and in structural modifications were made. The ballcourt appears to their spatial context. Although all are I-shaped, they also vary have been in use for a period equivalent to the length of the slightly in form (Taladoire 2001), with some having discrete Surface 2 occupation of the upper precinct. When the ballcourt end mounds and others not. was abandoned and filled in, Platform 11 and Structure 35 were The two earliest ballcourts that have been excavated are rebuilt in more modest form. In Surface 1 (the last occupational located at Monte Albán (Caso 1935) and San José Mogote surface), both residences were smaller than they had been (Flannery and Marcus 1983; Marcus and Flannery 1996:190). earlier and each had only one patio. Both are large I-shaped ballcourts that were constructed For the most part, the artifacts collected in the ballcourt during Monte Albán II (Terminal Formative), although the were temporally mixed and water damaged due to erosion. But court at Monte Albán continued to be used into the Classic we did recover in the fill a broken carved stone (ignimbrite) period. The court at Monte Albán is on the Main Plaza and is sculpture in the round (Fig. 9). The sculpture, which was found ensconced within the largest concentration of civic-ceremo- face down in fill deposits above the floor in the northeast nial architecture in Oaxaca at that time. The ballcourt at San José Mogote is similarly located as part of that site’s main architectural complex. The few later ballcourts that have been excavated are more variable in size and form. The smaller ballcourt adjacent to the Tomb 105 palace at Monte Albán lacks end mounds and dates to the Late Classic. In dating, plan, and associated architec- ture, the El Palmillo ballcourt is more similar to the ballcourt associated with the Tomb 105 residence. Three ballcourts at Atzompa (the northern hill of Monte Albán) also are consid- ered to be Late Classic. The largest one is part of the main architectural complex, but the two smaller ones are adjacent to elite residences and have plans more similar to the El Palmillo court (Blanton 1978). Because unexcavated ballcourts are difficult to date se- curely (Marcus 1996), we do not know how many of the 49 Oaxacan ballcourts were constructed in times or contexts Fig. 6. The stairs in the southeast corner of the ballcourt at El Palmillo. similar to the one at El Palmillo. Still, based on findings of 101

mexicon Vol. XXXIII August 2011 1998; Urcid 1992; Urcid et al. 1994). Each site glorified its own conjugal pair, most likely rulers. In most cases, this information was presented near tombs in a manner where only individuals situated close to the registers, perhaps involved in associated rituals, would see them. Communication was aimed at oth- ers of status and likely had much to do with Fig. 7. Cross section of the ballcourt at El Palmillo, showing the plaster floor under the legitimizing power and position. Through west mound and the sequence of floors on Platform 11. time, local rulers and settlements began to regional survey, many ballcourts were built in defensive assert greater autonomy, and by the end of the Late Classic, settings near regional boundaries (Kowalewski et al. 1991), like the reins of political power had partly diffused from Monte the one at El Palmillo. For example, at the margins of the Central Albán (Winter 2001:297). Valleys of Oaxaca, we found at least four ballcourts in the Ejutla With greater emphasis on personal biography and legiti- region that all seem to have been built at the end of the Classic macy, palaces, which had been present in the valley since the period or later. There may be others in Oaxaca that have similar end of the Formative period (Spencer and Redmond 2004), histories of construction and use. became a more important form of public architecture. In eastern Tlacolula, the construction of palaces with two or three pa- The Late Classic period in Oaxaca tios—different from the one-patio plan at Monte Albán—was During the Middle Classic (c. A.D. 500), Monte Albán was the undertaken at both (Lind 2001; 2003; Lind and political and demographic center of the Valley of Oaxaca. The Urcid 1983; 2010) and El Palmillo (Feinman 2007; Feinman and scale of the public architecture at Monte Albán far surpassed Nicholas 2009). The largest patios and associated rooms likely that found at any other settlement in the region, and the served civic-ceremonial functions (Barber and Joyce 2006; monopolized the incorporation of writing in civic-ceremonial González Licón 2004:97), whereas the smaller patios were more settings (Marcus 1989, 1992, 2006). residential. By late IIIb-IV, Monte Albán no longer maintained a The ballcourt at El Palmillo was built during the Late Classic monopoly on carved stones with writing, as new kinds of text between two palaces. This ballcourt was smaller and less depicting powerful individuals began to be displayed at more massive than the ballcourt on the Main Plaza at Monte Albán than a dozen sites across the region, including Monte Albán. and it lacked end mounds. The discovery of a ballcourt at El In these carved stones, or genealogical registers, the focus Palmillo is significant in that it supports the suspected impor- was on personal biography and the bilateral ancestry of high- tance of the site at that time, when it was the largest Late Classic status individuals (Marcus 1992; 2002; 2006; Masson and Orr site in eastern Tlacolula. The location of the ballcourt, adjacent to elaborate residences (and not part of the site’s main archi- tectural complex), may signify the increasing importance of specific high-status families (residential groups). Given the dating of the palaces, it is likely that a genealogical register that is today embedded in a houselot wall in nearby Santiago Matatlán originally came from El Palmillo (Paddock 1966; Urcid 2003:67, fig. 1). All three palaces at El Palmillo had been damaged by looting that occurred earlier in the 20th century, coincident with the timing of the placement of the carved stone in the Matatlán wall (Caso 1928), so that stone may have originated from one of the palaces. The late Monte Albán IIIb- IV construction of the El Palmillo ballcourt may indicate an effort by the site’s palace dwellers to enhance their political role at a time when the power and hegemony of Monte Albán was in decline. Interpretation and implications The placement of the ballcourt at El Palmillo and its reasonably short history of use has implications for how we interpret the declining fortunes of Monte Albán and the political fragmen- tation of the Valley of Oaxaca during the last centuries of the Classic period. The El Palmillo ballcourt was positioned be- tween two palaces at a time when this upper sector of the site was the most architecturally elaborate and the hegemony of Monte Albán was beginning to wane. In this context, the construction of relatively small courts adjacent to palaces may Fig. 8. The Surface 3 plan of residential architecture in the upper be part of an emerging contest for power that culminated in a precinct at El Palmillo, immediately prior to the construction fundamental political and demographic reorganization of the 102 of the ballcourt. Valley of Oaxaca late in the Classic period.

mexicon Vol. XXXIII August 2011 Matatlán for the permission to implement our field studies and their support of our efforts. We also thank Jill Seagard for her help in preparing the graphics for this work. All the photographs were taken by Linda Nicholas.

References cited

Barber, Sarah B., and Arthur A. Joyce 2006 When is a house a palace? Elite residences in the Valley of Oaxaca. In Jessica Joyce Christie and Joan Sarro (eds.), Palaces and power in the Americas: from Peru to the Northwest Coast, pp. 211–255. University of Texas Press, Austin. Bernal, Ignacio, and Lorenzo Gamio 1974 , el palacio de los seis patios. Serie Antropológica 16, Instituto de Investigaciones Antropológicos, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Mexico. Caso, Alfonso 1928 Las estelas zapotecas. Secretaría de Educación Pública, Talleres Gráficos de la Nación, Mexico. 1935 Las exploraciones en Monte Albán, temporada 1934–1935. Publicación 18, Instituto Panamericano de Geografía e Historia, Mexico. Fig. 9. Back of the carved stone figure recovered from fill in the ballcourt at El Palmillo. Feinman, Gary M. 2007 The last quarter century of archaeological research in the The has long been linked to Central Valleys of Oaxaca. Mexicon 29:3–15. political or factional rivalry, competitions for power, and the accession of rule (Fox 1996; Gillespie 1991; Montmollin 1997; Feinman, Gary M., and Linda M. Nicholas Santley et al. 1991), with ballcourts serving as ”strategic 2004 Hilltop terrace sites of Oaxaca, Mexico: intensive surface settings for the negotiation of power relations” (Fox 1996:483). survey at Guirún, El Palmillo, and the Fortress. Fieldiana: As regional political ties frayed in the Valley of Oaxaca, a new Anthropology, new series 37, Field Museum of Natural History, Chicago. form of small ballcourts was built adjacent to the palaces of 2007 The socioeconomic organization of the Classic period Zapotec emerging local lords, who appear to have been concerned with state. In Vernon L. Scarborough and John E. Clark (eds.), The legitimizing their rights to rule. For a short period, the construc- political economy of ancient : transformations tion of the El Palmillo ballcourt and the rituals of the ballgame during the Formative and Classic periods, pp. 135–147. marked and negotiated the fragmentation of power in the University of New Mexico Press, Albuquerque. Valley of Oaxaca, possibly helping legitimize the local rulership 2009 Informe final del proyecto de El Palmillo: una perspectiva of the Platform 11 palace dwellers. But this episode was short- doméstica del periodo Clásico en el valle de Oaxaca, temporadas lived, soon followed by the gradual abandonment of El Palmillo, 1999–2008. Presentado al Consejo de Arqueología, Instituto the diminished access to labor for the El Palmillo palace Nacional de Antropología e Historia, Mexico. dwellers, the continued decline of Monte Albán, and the Feinman, Gary M., Linda M. Nicholas, and Helen R. Haines political and demographic reorganization of the Valley of 2002 Houses on a hill: Classic period life at El Palmillo, Oaxaca, Oaxaca. Mexico. Latin American Antiquity13: 251–277. The excavation, contextualized definition, and chronologi- Feinman, Gary M., Linda M. Nicholas, and Edward Maher cal placement of the Late Classic El Palmillo ballcourt strength- 2008 Domestic offerings at El Palmillo: implications for community ens our understanding of the functions and roles of one set of organization. Ancient Mesoamerica 19:175–194. Valley of Oaxaca courts. Nevertheless, to extend this interpre- tation more broadly or to contrast it with alternative hypoth- Flannery, Kent V., and Joyce Marcus 1983 San José Mogote in Monte Albán II: a secondary administrative eses regarding the roles that ballcourts had in the region will center. In Kent V. Flannery and Joyce Marcus (eds.), The require the careful study and dating of more such architectural cloud people: divergent evolution of the Zapotec and features as well as detailed efforts to place these buildings in civilizations, pp. 111–113. Academic Press, New York. broader horizontal/architectural contexts. Fox, John Gerard 1996 Playing with power: ballcourts and political ritual in southern Acknowledgments Mesoamerica. Current Anthropology 37:483–496. We gratefully acknowledge National Science Foundation support for Gillespie, Susan D. the excavations at El Palmillo (SBR-9805288, BCS-0349668). We also 1991 Ballgames and boundaries. In Vernon L. Scarborough and appreciate the essential financial assistance we received from the David R. Wilcox (eds.), The Mesoamerican ballgame, pp. National Geographic Society, the H. John Heinz III Fund of the Heinz 317–345. University of Arizona Press, Tucson. Family Foundation, the Field Museum, the Women’s Board of the Field Musem, the Negaunee Foundation, Mark and Connie Crane, and the González Licón, Ernesto Graduate School of the University of Wisconsin-Madison. We are 2004 Royal palaces and painted tombs: state and society in the grateful to the Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia of Mexico, the Centro Regional de Oaxaca, and the local authorities of Santiago Valley of Oaxaca. In Susan Toby Evans and Joanne Pillsbury 103

mexicon Vol. XXXIII August 2011 (eds.), Palaces of the ancient world, pp. 83–110. Dumbarton Oliveros, Arturo Oaks, Washington, DC 1997 Dainzú-Macuilxóchitl: un lugar para el juego de pelota. Arqueología 5(26):24–29. Haller, Mikael J., Gary M. Feinman, and Linda M. Nicholas 2006 Socioeconomic inequality and differential access to faunal Paddock, John resources at El Palmillo, Oaxaca, Mexico. Ancient 1966 Ancient Oaxaca: discoveries in Mexican archaeology and Mesoamerica 17:39–56. history. Stanford University Press, Stanford, CA. Kowalewski, Stephen A., Gary M. Feinman, Laura Finsten, and Santley, Robert S., Michael J. Berman, and Rani T. Alexander Richard E. Blanton 1991 The politicization of the Mesoamerican ballgame and its 1991 Pre-Hispanic ballcourts from the Valley of Oaxaca, Mexico. implications for the interpretation of the distribution of In Vernon L. Scarborough and David R. Wilcox (eds.), The ballcourts in central Mexico. In Vernon L. Scarborough and Mesoamerican ballgame, pp. 25–44. University of Arizona David R. Wilcox (eds.), The Mesoamerican ballgame, pp. 3– Press, Tucson. 24. University of Arizona Press, Tucson. Kowalewski, Stephen A., Gary M. Feinman, Laura Finsten, Spencer, Charles S., and Elsa M. Redmond Richard E. Blanton, and Linda M. Nicholas 2004 A Late Monte Albán I phase (300–100B.C.) palace in the 1989 Monte Albán’s hinterland, part II: prehispanic settlement Valley of Oaxaca. Latin American Antiquity 15:441–455. patterns in Tlacolula, Etla, and Ocotlán, the Valley of Oaxaca, Taladoire, Eric Mexico. Memoir 23, Museum of Anthropology, University 2001 The architectural background of the pre-Hispanic ballgame: an of Michigan, Ann Arbor. evolutionary perspective. In E. Michael Whittington (ed.), Lind, Michael D. The sport of life and death: the Mesoamerican ballgame, pp. 2001 Lambityeco and the Xoo phase (ca. A.D. 600–800): the elite 97–115. Thames and Hudson, London. residences of Mound 195. In Nelly M. Robles García (ed.), Urcid, Javier Procesos de cambio y conceptualización del tiempo, pp. 111– 1992 La tumba 5 del Cerro de la Campana, Suchilquitongo, Oaxaca: 128. Memoria de la Primera Mesa Redonda de Monte Albán, un análisis epigráfico. Arqueología 8(jul–dec):73–112. Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia, Mexico. 2003 A Zapotec slab in Santiago Matatlán, Oaxaca. Mesoamerican 2003 Lambityeco – Tomb 6. In Patricia Plunket (ed.), Homenaje a Voices 1:65–90. John Paddock, pp. 45–66. Fundación Universidad de las Américas, . Urcid, Javier, Marcus Winter, and Raúl Matadamas 1994 Nuevos monumentos grabados en Monte Albán, Oaxaca. In Lind, Michael D., and Javier Urcid Marcus Winter (ed.), Escritura zapoteca prehispánica: nuevas 1983 The lords of Lambityeco and their nearest neighbors. Notas aportaciones, pp. 2–52. Proyecto Especial Monte Albán Mesoamericanas 9:78–111. 1992–1994, Contribución 4, Oaxaca, Mexico. 2010 The lords of Lambityeco: political evolution in the Valley of Oaxaca during the Xoo phase. University Press of Colorado, Winter, Marcus Boulder. 2001 Palacios, templos, y 1,300 años de vida urbana en Monte Albán. In Andrés Ciudad Ruíz, María Iglesias Ponce de León, Marcus, Joyce and María del Carmen Martínez Martínez (eds.), 1989 From centralized systems to city-states: possible models for Reconstruyendo la ciudad Maya: el urbanismo en las sociedades the Epiclassic. In Richard A. Diehl and Janet C. Berlo (eds.), antiguas, pp. 277–301. Sociedad Española de Estudios Mayas, Mesoamerica after the decline of , A.D. 700–900, Madrid. pp. 201–208. Dumbarton Oaks, Washington, DC. 1996 Comment on ”Playing with power.” Current Anthropology 37:500. RESUMEN: Se excavó recientemente una cancha de pelota que 1992 Mesoamerican writing systems: propaganda, myth, and no hubo sido conocida anteriormente en el sitio de El Palmillo history in four ancient civilizations. Princeton University en el valle de Oaxaca. Esta cancha pequeña fue construida Press, Princeton, NJ. entre dos palacios existentes en un recinto de alto estatus 2002 Carved stones from the Sola Valley, Oaxaca. In Andrew K. durante el periodo Clásico Tardío, cerca del fin de la ocupación Balkansky, The Sola Valley and the Monte Albán state: a del sitio. Después de un episodio de uso corto, se abandonó study in Zapotec imperial expansion, pp. 103–121. Memoirs la cancha. Cuando se sitúa el descubrimiento de este elemento arqueológico en el contexto de la asociación del juego de 36, Museum of Anthropology, University of Michigan, Ann pelota mesoamericano con linderos, facciones y la adquisición Arbor. de poder política, tiene implicaciones para nuestro 2006 Identifying elites and their strategies. In Christina M. Elson entendimiento de las fortunas disminuyentas de Monte Albán and R. Alan Covey (eds.), Intermediate elites in pre-Columbian y la fragmentación política del valle de Oaxaca en el fin del states and , pp. 212–246. University of Arizona periodo Clásico. Press, Tucson ZUSAMMENFASSUNG: In der archäologischen Stätte El Palmillo im Tal von Oaxaca wurde ein bislang unbekannter Ballspielplatz Marcus, Joyce, and Kent V. Flannery ausgegraben. Der kleine Ballspielplatz wurde erst in der Späten 1996 : how urban society evolved in Mexico’s Klassik und damit spät in Bezug auf die Besiedlung der Stätte . Thames and Hudson, London. zwischen zwei bereits existierenden Palästen konstruiert. Nach einer kurzen Zeit der Nutzung wurde der Ballspielplatz Masson, Marilyn A., and Heather Orr aufgegeben. Vor dem Hintergrund der Assoziation von 1998 The role of genealogical records in late Precolumbian Valley Ballspielplätzen in Mesoamerika mit Grenzen, Gruppen- of Oaxaca political history. Mexicon 20:10–16 bildungen, und der Legitimation politischer Macht ist der Ballspielplatz von El Palmillo ein Indikator für die abnehmende Montmollin, Olivier de Macht von Monte Alban und für die politische Fragmentierung 1997 A regional study of Classic Maya ballcourts from the upper des Tals von Oaxaca gegen Ende der Klassischen Periode. Grijalva Basin, Chiapas, Mexico. Ancient Mesoamerica 8:23– 104 41.

mexicon Vol. XXXIII August 2011